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The turbulent period of the New York art world in the late 1960s is captured in this exhibition with works by 35 New York artists. New mediums such as performance and video art were developing, and sculpture was quickly expanding in many different directions. Experimental abstract painting that pressed the medium to its limits was an important part of the moment. "High Times, Hard Times" recovers the thrilling innovations of the time, as well as their social context. Almost half of the artists are women, and many are African-American; these identities are not incidental but essential to grasping the possibilities of the period. (And perhaps part of the reason this painting has been left out of the history books.) The artists in this exhibition range from well-known figures like Carolee Schneemann or Blinky Palermo to now less-familiar names such as Al Loving or Harmony Hammond, who were extremely important at the time. "High Times, Hard Times" recovers a missing history, and also resonates with contemporary conditions: many young artists ask, as was asked in 1968, how painting can matter in a turbulent world.
High Times, Hard Times: New York Painting 1967 –1975 is a traveling exhibition organized and circulated by iCI (Independent Curators International). The guest curator is Katy Siegel, with David Reed as advisor. The exhibition, tour, and catalogue are made possible, in part, with support from the Peter Norton Family Foundation, the Dedalus Foundation, Inc., the iCI International Associates, and the iCI Exhibition Partners, Kenneth S.Kuchin, and Gerrit and Sydie Lansing.
